Since ancient times, solar eclipses have inspired our ancestors with wild ideas about what is actually happening in the sky. The Chinese, for example, believed that the eclipse was caused by a dragon swallowing the sun. So they made a lot of noise and beat drums to scare the dragon away. It then spat the sun back out or didn't swallow it at all. The Chinese term for eclipse is indeed related to the idea of "eating" or "devouring" a celestial body.
The Vikings had similar myths. In their legend, the wolf siblings Hati and Skoll chased the sun and moon across the sky. Skoll wanted to eat the moon, while Hati had the sun in his sights. When one or the other caught up with his prey, an eclipse occurred, either of the sun or the moon.
In India, the eclipse was the work of the demon Rahu. He disguised himself as a god to obtain the elixir of immortality. But the sun and moon exposed him and told the chief god of India, Vishnu. He cut off the demon's head for his insolence and blew it into space. It wanders among the stars and occasionally covers the sun or the moon.
Some African tribes believed that during a solar eclipse, the sun battles with the moon for prominence in the sky. This was meant as a warning to the people that they had better make peace with each other and not be like the Sun and the Moon. So the members of these tribes sat down at the time of the solar eclipse rather than making noise and tried to settle their disputes.
The Inuit of Greenland believed that the Sun and the Moon were two celestial siblings, the Moon god Anningan with the sister goddess Malina. Anningan chases Malina, forgetting to eat and losing weight in the process. This also explains the phases of the moon. When Anningan stopped to regain his strength, he disappeared from the sky and the new moon came. The eclipse of the sun then occurred when Anningan caught up with Malina, just as when the moon caught up with the sun in the sky. The Greeks, in turn, explained the eclipse of the sun by saying that the angry gods would take the sun away from the people until they had reformed from their sins.
Well, the Cherokee Americans believed that there was a big frog in the sky that wanted to eat the sun. Other tribes believed that a black squirrel or a big bear was trying to eat the sun. The Ojibwe, on the other hand, feared that the sun had been extinguished. To avoid losing the light, they shot lighted arrows towards the sun to reignite it.
Of course, all these manifestations were especially significant during total eclipses, which are rarer but paradoxically more observable. Partial ones may often not be noticed at all due to the strong brightness of the Sun. These have historically been observed mainly low on the horizon or through clouds, when the Sun's brightness has been significantly diminished. Another possibility was to observe the phenomenon through a pinhole chamber. This is created in nature by, for example, the leaves of shrubs, so that the crescents of the eclipsed Sun are projected onto the ground.
However, let's start slowly approaching the present. Historical records of solar eclipses are now used extensively to date historical events. Let's take just one example to illustrate. According to the historian Herodotus, a solar eclipse occurred during the Battle of Halys River. Here, the people of Lydia and the Mede Empire were at war with each other. It was through the description of the eclipse that historians calculated that the battle took place on May 28, 585 BC.
But let's go completely to the present. We have here a film by Michal Šrejber and Marek Tušl called The Sun through the Eyes and Hydrogen. The authors used the eclipse on March 29, 2025 to capture an impressive photographic composition. They have used the observation in the so-called white light, i.e. as we can see it with our eyes. Using effective eye protection, of course. These black-and-white images of the solar photosphere, with cloud cover in some places that made the observer somewhat uncomfortable, surround a central reddish view of the solar chromosphere. Although this is shown in a negative view, we can still see active regions in the dark view. In contrast, sunspots and prominences visible from above are bright. The solar chromosphere lies above the photosphere on the Sun. It is only about 3 000 to 5 000 km thick, about the radius of the Earth. It is relatively transparent, more so than the underlying photosphere, which we can also observe below it. From the right side, which is also true for images of the photosphere, the Moon "bites" into the Sun. Or perhaps a dragon?
The viewing of this solar eclipse was quite dramatic. The weather played tricks on the observers and some did not see a bit of the eclipse. Others, such as our authors, were lucky because they were able to observe the phenomenon, albeit with the help of clouds.
"In conclusion, we would like to thank the authors for reminding us of this unusual astronomical phenomenon and, of course, for submitting their composition to the Czech Astrophotography of the Month competition. This competition is sponsored by the Czech Astronomical Society, which joins the competition jury in congratulating them." said for the jury of the CMA Marcel Bělík, Observatory in Úpice.
Author: Michal Šrejber and Marek Tušl
Title: The sun through the eyes and hydrogen
Place: Hradec Kralove
Date: 29. 3. 2025
Sensor: Canon 6D + Zwo ASI 585 MC
Optics: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM + LUNT LS60THa
Assembly: Tripod + Lasmondy robotic mount
DescriptionDescription : Sun in hydrogen spectrum processed in PIPP (debayerization), Autostakkert (stack), AstraImage (deconvolution), IMPPG (inversion) and cosmetic adjustments in Adobe photoshop. Ambient Suns mass edited in Adobe Lightroom and then composited in Adobe Photoshop. Due to cloud cover only 51 photos were possible for the middle Sun, the surrounding Suns are single shoots.
You can see the winning images in each month and more information at http://www.astro.cz/cam/.
Czech Astronomical Society/ gnews.cz - RoZ
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